England Cricket Misery Continues

England’s Ben Stokes tries to stop the ball during the match in Melbourne, Sunday.

Australia beat England by six wickets in the opening match of the one-day international series in Melbourne over the weekend, piling on the misery for the touring team after a five-nil whitewash in the Ashes tests.

England’s total of 269 runs in 50 overs was gobbled up by Australia, whose diner-in-chief was Aaron Finch. The 27-year-old player, who doesn’t feature in Australia’s test team, scored 121 runs from 128 deliveries as he made the most of being dropped by England’s Gary Ballance when we was on eight. Ballance caught Finch later, but by then the Australian had scored 113 more runs.

David Warner scored 65 for Australia in an opening partnership of 163 runs. It was the highest ODI partnership the Melbourne Cricket Ground has ever seen. England could only dream of such a strong start. Captain Alastair Cook was caught by Brad Haddin for four runs in the opening over of the match. Joe Root, at number three, could only manage three runs himself.

The mid-to-lower English order did better than in the Ashes, when it regularly capitulated for a tiny scattering of runs. All five batsmen from Ballance at number four to Tim Bresnan at nine got well into double figures, but Finch and his teammates made easy work of the chase, reaching England’s target with 26 balls to spare.

England has a new look team for the ODI series, but the shadow of the Ashes thrashing still looms large. Some observers, including former players David Lloyd and Geoffrey Boycott, have said they expect the team to be whitewashed again.

The English media is also downbeat. Nick Hoult of the Daily Telegraph said there was a gulf in class between Australia and England, adding that Saturday’s loss was another turn for the worse in this sorry English tour.

There was some rare good news for English cricket on Monday, however, as the women’s team beat Australia by 61 runs in a one-off test match in Perth, Western Australia.